Demonstration Programs

Mental Health

Financial Literacy

Summer Learning

Compassion Consortium

Afterschool Learning Labs

Previous Projects

Cultural Partnerships

Youth-led Community Service

Brooklyn Lab Students playing Capoeira

To showcase models of quality afterschool education practice in critical thematic areas, PASE partners with leading youth agencies and experts in related fields to develop Demonstration Projects. These programs function as living laboratories, enabling agencies to explore novel approaches and showing how programs can engage and enrich young people.

Mental Health - Partners In Healing Created in response to the social and emotional fallout from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Partners in Healing integrates mental health concepts and interventions with youth development in the context of community-based afterschool programs.

Learning & Literacy PASE is enabling community-based organizations to make their afterschool programs into rich literacy and learning environments. Utilizing activities linked to the New York State ELA standards, youth development principles, and PASE's peer-driven training model, the Culture of Learning and Literacy reached the staff and youth of nearly 400 programs in its first year alone.

Financial Literacy Dollars & Sense: Building Financial Dreams utilizes PASE’s extensive network of youth-serving organizations to reach thousands of low- to middle-income 18- to 24-year-old program participants and youth workers with effective and engaging financial planning education.

Summer Learning Initiative In a study conducted by Johns Hopkins University sociologists, summer learning loss was shown to be a major cause of the growing gap in academic achievement between children from different income groups. The PASE Summer Learning Initiative directly addresses this issue by training agencies to integrate traditional summer programming with activities that support a child’s school-year learning, preparing children to meet the challenges of school in the fall.

The PASE Afterschool Community Learning Labs At Afterschool Learning Lab model demonstration sites in New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey, exemplary afterschool programs are showcased in a school-based setting. Providing young people a diverse menu of programming that responds directly to their needs, the labs also serve as a venue where representatives from schools, community-based organizations, foundations, and government can observe innovative youth development programming in action.

Previous Demonstration Projects

Cultural Partnerships PASE’s innovative Cultural Partnerships for Youth (CPY) program utilizes an inquiry-based learning framework to link at-risk middle school youth with exemplary arts organizations and afterschool arts education experiences.

Sidewalk Arts Initiative challenges young people to develop personally, socially, emotionally, and artistically through a combination of intensive arts activities (creative writing, music and movement, theater arts, and visual arts), and “personal development rap sessions” that build problem solving skills and self-awareness. The initiative brings together afterschool programs, educational and cultural institutions to foster the enjoyment of learning through arts-based education activities. Check out the Sidewalk Arts Curriculum and adapt it for your own program!

YouthConnect! With trainings and networking opportunities provided by PASE, agencies are equipped with the expertise and resources to create and strengthen their youth-led community service projects. See the YouthConnect! Resource Guide for Youth-led Community Service.